Imaginary
by Orwell is watching-xoxo
Summary: Nicknames 'verse: Bass wanted to believe that none of this was real, but, in the end, he knew that this was just how life was meant to be. Spoilers up to mid-season finale.


**I'm miserable, so I'm going to make my Sebby miserable too. Ya'll can watch if you want to. **

**I own nothing, spoilers through the mid-season finale. Consider this a hidden flashback of when Bass found out that his parents and sisters were all dead. **

_**Imaginary**_

Sebastian "Bass" Monroe enjoyed getting letters from home, more than anything else in the world while he was away at war. When a letter arrived for him, his heart swelled with anticipation. The Marine especially loved getting letters from his Pen Pal Amanda. (Hey, so she was barely fifteen, the kid was sick in the hospital after recovering from a nearly fatal case of anorexia _and_ bulimia. Psychiatrists set up a program where these sick children would send letters to the troops. It felt damn good, Bass had to admit.) Other times, letters would come in from his parents, his sisters, or even from Miles. One letter that he received back in 2010 was practically the most earth shattering letter he had ever gotten before, however.

The Marine tore open the envelope, anxious to see who the letter was from this time around. But when he started reading further into the letter, he started to feel sick to his stomach. A drunk driver rammed his parents and younger sisters while they were on the way to the movies, his father had died on impact, but the other three were in the ICU unit, fighting for their lives.

Bass began to tear up at the thought of his mom and sisters tied up to a bunch of wires and tubes, only somewhat keeping them alive. It wasn't right, dammit! This was all some sort of a bad dream! As the tears began to escape the future president's eyes, he leaned back against the nearest wall, losing every ounce of strength he had left from the day. He fervently told himself that this wasn't real. Any minute, one of the other troops would come in laughing at the Marine's expense. Or maybe he could just get a restart on the day, and it all would have been a dream. Bass' parents had been in great health, and his sisters had just gone off to college for the first time. Why did this have to happen to his family? He would have taken their places in a heartbeat; it shouldn't have happened to them.

Sebastian tore the letter to shreds, chuckling silently to himself. If he got rid of the letter, then it would have been like it never happened, right? He could go on thinking that they'd be there for him when he was finally deployed. It hurt too damn much to face the facts. His reality began to blur into fantasy in that moment, and he was perfectly all right with that. He completely ignored the letter that came in a few weeks after that, informing him of his mother's and sisters' passing. Many a time, he was caught writing letters to his family, even though they would _never_ reply. He told himself that they would reply eventually to keep from going completely catatonic. Even young Mandy could tell that something wasn't right with her friend, just from reading his most recent letters. She wasn't even very surprised when he finally stopped writing her letters, despite how saddened she was by this.

Miles greeted his old friend after he finally came back to America in one piece. He could tell then and there that he wasn't the same Bass. Some part of him had died with his family, not that the older Marine could blame him. If anything had even happened to Ben…

"Bass, c'mon, let's get you home," the darker haired man began, grabbing the blonde by the elbow and helping him towards the car. Bass wasn't just jetlagged, he was completely broken. Miles was _literally_ his only family left, and he would be damned if he would let him leave him without a fair fight.

The younger Marine had already started his spiral downwards with the death of his family. But he still didn't have the heart to murder anyone in cold blood, not like Miles did. Bass never knew why his best friend became so brutal. (He had his suspicions, but those were to be saved for a rainy day, preferably one where Ben wasn't anywhere around.) By the time the blackout occurred, he was sure that he was place would forever be by his best friend's side, no matter how psychotic the man got.

During the eleven years that the two of them were rising to power with the Monroe Republic, both of them, understandably, had their own sets of regrets. In the end, though, Miles was the one that cracked.

Years down the road, even as Mandy finally gave him something to live for, Bass still had his regrets. He didn't like what he had become after all of these years, especially since it could endanger the life of his girlfriend and their unborn child. His parents would have been ashamed of him. Hell, his kid was gonna be ashamed of him when it got old enough to understand how truly screwed up this world was.

If it would have been him to die in that crash instead of his family, the world probably would have been in a better place. Mandy would be with a man that deserved to love her, and their baby would belong to a well prepared couple, with all of the resources to spoil the hell outta it.

Now the world was doomed, and all because of him. He felt guilty that he loved Mandy too much to let her go, and that he was actually looking _forward _to becoming a father.

This wasn't really happening. It _couldn't_ be happening.

**So, what did ya'll think? Wanna give Bass a big ol' hug and tell him that it'll be alright? Let me know in a review!**

**As a side note, I seem to have lost my mind. Instead of going to bed to get rid of this nasty cough, I'm up, taking daytime cough syrup, so that I can continue torturing Sebby. If ya'll see my common sense floating around, can you please shoo her back to me, please? **


End file.
